A tentative approach to the direct simulation of drag reduction by polymers

An efficient technique for drag reduction uses dilute solutions of a few p.p.m. of polymers. A possible reduction in drag of up to 80% is achieved. Several experimental observations have been made which tend to indicate that the polymers modify the turbulence structures within the buffer layer. Flow visualisations have shown that the changes consist of a weakening of the strength of the streamwise vortices. Existing literature reveals no attempts of numerical simulation of this phenomenon. In this paper an approach is pursued by using a constitutive equation which relates the elongation viscosity to the local properties of the flow. According to this model this viscosity is large in zones where the amount of strain rate is greater than the amount of vorticity, and is zero when the vorticity exceeds the strain rate. Simulations have been performed in a “minimal channel” to give good resolution with a limited number of grid points. The accuracy of the method is tested by comparison with the results of other techniques. For simulations with polymers, quantitative comparisons cannot be made, but the results reproduce the qualitative outputs of the experiments. The mean streamwise velocity is modified in the buffer layer; the peak of the streamwise turbulent intensity, in wall units, increases and its maximum moves far from the wall; and the vertical turbulent intensity is largely reduced in the wall region. An interesting outcome from both the simulation and the experiments is that the strength of the longitudinal vortices is reduced when the polymers are present.     

基于遗传禁忌算法的双资源约束下并行生产线调度研究

并行生产线调度问题兼有并行机器和流程车间调度问题的特点,是一类新型的调度问题。在考虑遗传算法早熟收敛特性和禁忌搜索法自适应优点的基础上,将遗传算法和禁忌搜索法结合起来,提出了基于遗传算法和禁忌搜索算法的双资源并行作业车间的调度优化问题算法,即考虑到了产品的调度受到机器、工人等资源制约的影响,对算法中种群的构造,适应度计算,遗传操作等方面进行了研究,最后给出了实例仿真和结论。     

Order and chaos in soft condensed matter

Soft matter, like colloidal suspensions and surfactant gels, exhibit strong response to modest external perturbations. This paper reviews our recent experiments on the nonlinear flow behaviour of surfactant worm-like micellar gels. A rich dynamic behaviour exhibiting regular, quasi-periodic, intermittency and chaos is observed. In particular, we have shown experimentally that the route to chaos is via Type-II intermittency in shear thinning worm-like micellar solution of cetyltrimethylammonium tosylate where the strength of flow-concentration coupling is tuned by the addition of sodium chloride. A Poincaré first return map of the time series and the probability distribution of laminar length between burst events show that our data are consistent with Type-II intermittency. The existence of a ‘Butterfly’ intensity pattern in small angle light scattering (SALS) measurements performed simultaneously with the rheological measurements confirms the coupling of flow to concentration fluctuations in the system under study. The scattered depolarised intensity in SALS, sensitive to orientational order fluctuations, shows the same time-dependence (like intermittency) as that of shear stress.     

Improved dust capture methods for crushing plant

The use of compressive crushing equipment such as gyratory crushers within minerals processing plants can potentially generate large quantities of dust. Remedies to this problem include the retrofitting of shrouds, enclosures, local exhaust ventilation (LEV) systems and water suppression systems. The single or combined application of these systems must be optimised to ensure they operate efficiently. It is desirable that the future design planning of such facilities include integrated dust suppression and/or removal systems to ensure material delivery rates are maintained and the welfare of the workforce is protected.     

多级轴流压气机全工况特性计算

本文使用三维粘性流动计算软件Fine／Numeca,对某十五级轴流压气机进行了内流流场和全工况特性的数值计算尝试。分析了该压气机在设计工况和非设计工况的性能,同时把整机计算结果和前七级叶片的计算结果进行了比较。计算结果表明,当计算的级数较少时,目前的软件和硬件平台可以比较合理地预测压气机的全工况特性;而当计算的级数较多时,准确的数值模拟仍需要更为准确的多级模型和数值方法。     

Thermal stability of shear-induced precursor structures in isotactic polypropylene by rheo-X-ray techniques with couette flow geometry

Combined in situ rheo-SAXS (small-angle X-ray scattering) and -WAXD (wide-angle X-ray diffraction) studies using couette flow geometry were carried out to probe thermal stabilty of shear-induced oriented precursor structure in isotactic polypropylene (iPP) at around its normal melting point (162 °C). Although SAXS results corroborated the emerging consensus about the formation of “long-living” metastable mesomorphic precursor structures in sheared iPP melts, these are the first quantitative measures of the limiting temperature at which no oriented structures survive. At the applied shear, rate = 60 s⁻¹ and duration t_s = 5 s, the oriented iPP structures survived a temperature of 185 °C for 1 h after shear, while no stable structures were detected at and above 195 °C. Following Keller's concepts of chain orientation in flow, it is proposed that the chains with highly oriented high molecular weight fraction are primarily responsible for their stability at high temperatures. Furthermore, the effects of flow condition, specifically the shear temperature, on the distributions of oriented and unoriented crystals were determined from rheo-WAXD results. As expected, at a constant flow intensity (i.e., rate = 30 s⁻¹ and duration, t_s = 5 s), the oriented crystal fraction decreased with the increase in temperature above 155 °C, below which the oriented fraction decreased with the decrease in temperature. As a result, a crystallinty “phase” diagram, i.e., temperature versus crystal fraction ratio, exhibited a peculiar “hourglass” shape, similar to that found in many two-phase polymer–polymer blends. This can be explained by the competition between the oriented and unoriented crystals in the available crystallizable species. Below the shear temperature (155 °C), the unoriented crystals crystallized so rapidly that they overwhelmed the crystallization of the oriented crystals, thus depleting a major portion of the crystallizable species and increasing their contribution in the final total crystalline phase. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 3553–3570, 2006     

The application of Hölder exponent to traffic congestion warning

In this paper, we applied multifractal modeling techniques to analyze the traffic data collected from the Beijing Yuquanying. The results indicated that multifractal characteristics obviously exist in the traffic system; the degree of fractality of these traffic data tends to increase as the traffic system becomes congested; the Hölder exponent that measures the local rate of fractality may be used as indicators to predict the presence of the traffic congestion.     

Assessment of filtered gas–solid momentum transfer models via a linear wave propagation speed test

The propagation speeds of linear waves in gas–solid suspensions depend strongly on the solids volume fraction and the wave frequency. The latter is due to gas–solid momentum transfer and allows a simple test on filtered gas–solid momentum transfer models. Such models may predict linear wave propagation speeds different from those obtained with the non-filtered model at wave frequencies higher than the filter frequency, but not at wave frequencies lower than the filter frequency.     

Establishment of hybrid-derived offspring populations in the Ohomopterus ground beetles through unidirectional hybridization

An approach to deduce the mechanism of stabilization of the hybrid-derived populations in the Ohomopterus ground beetles has been made by comparative studies on the phylogenetic trees of the mitochondrial and nuclear DNA. A phylogenetic tree based on the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal gene roughly reflects the relations of morphological species group, while mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase subunit 5 (ND5) gene shows a considerable different topology on the tree; there exist several geographically-linked lineages, most of which consist of more than one species. These results suggest that the replacement of mitochondria has occurred widely in the Ohomopterus species. In most cases, hybridization is unidirectional, i.e., the species A (♂) hybridized with another species B (♀) and not vice versa, with accompanied replacement of mitochondria of A by those of B. The results also suggest that partial or complete occupation of the distribution territory by a hybrid-derived morphological species. The morphological appearance of the resultant hybrid-derivatives are recognized as that of the original species A. Emergence of a morphological new species from a hybrid-derived population has been exemplified.     

Formation of long range ordered arrangement of quantum dots with the help of lateral centripetal flow

A simple “chimney” method was used to eliminate the voids in an arrangement of quantum dots sized 2 nm on a solid substrate, which resulted in a large well ordered superlattice of area in the order more than 1 μm². Based on the principle of speeding up the interparticle interaction of nanoparticles to overcome the particle-substrate one, a lateral centripetal force originated from a glass tube acting as a chimney in a simple evaporation device is imposed. This method allows the packing process to be controlled in a mechanical force field, that is, with the same nanogold dispersion different patterns on a substrate—from separate dots to an ordered compact monolayer or even a multilayer structure—could be easily obtained.